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A Week in Charleston, South Carolina

On Sunday, the 25th of June, we awoke early to attend worship at St. Luke’s Church in Hilton Head before hitching our 5th wheel up to our truck for a one-hundred mile drive northward to Charleston, South Carolina. We had enjoyed our previous week with Julie and Tracy swimming at the beach, zip-lining, taking nature walks, and eating great food. Our two-hour trip across the low country was easy and uneventful. We arrived at the Charleston KOA just after noon and pulled our home into a rather narrow site with neighbors close on either side (One of which had “Just Married” scribbled on the windows of their small RV with a Bud Light tent attached — they had gotten married two days prior).

Interior of St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Hilton Head.

Sunset at the Charleston KOA

Cindy and I had a pretty low-key week, by design. We were happy for some “down-time” after the busyness of the past few weeks and the promised hectic pace of the next few. We ran a few errands in town, stumbling upon the Holy City Brewery where we sampled some brew in the process. We used some of this down time to officially christen our roving home as Beatitude II. We attached small graphics to either side and a larger graphic on the rear proclaiming this vehicle as the heir to our former home, Beatitude. We trust we’ll make just as many marvelous memories on board our new abode as we did on the original.

At the Holy City Brewery.

Our sampler from the brewery.

Crossing Charleston’s Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge

Using our truck as scaffolding to place the graphics on our RV’s stern (I figure I can call it a stern since I keep referring to it as our boat.)

Graphics going up on Beatitude II

Voila!

Our new graphics

Almost every evening, we ate dinner with our friends, Justin and Shera. We ate at their home, they ate at our home, and we had dinner out. We are so thankful for these great people! On Thursday morning, I decided to play a round of golf at Charleston National Golf Club, a beautiful course stretching through the marshes of the low country. While I sliced, hooked, and lost golf balls on a beautiful sunny day, Cindy and Shera revisited the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island where they produce American Classic Tea, the only tea which is 100% grown on U.S.A. soil.

Enjoying a dinner at Jim and Nick’s with Justin and Shera

Pizza dinner at Juliet’s on King Street in Charleston

Interior/Bar of Juliet Ristorante

Charleston National Golf Club

Tea being made at the Charleston Tea Plantation.

Tea plants on the plantation

On Friday, Justin took a day off to join us on a visit to one of the several old plantations in the Charleston Area. On a previous visit while cruising the coast on Beatitude, Cindy and I had visited Middleton Place. You can read about that visit here. Some of our other Charleston adventures can be found here, here, and here. But, on this day, we visited Boone Hall Plantation, one of America’s oldest working plantations, continually growing crops for over 320 years. Driving in on The Avenue of the Oaks, the majestic driveway into this antebellum plantation, was an aesthetic experience of the highest order. It is canopied by old southern live oaks, originally planted in 1743. The plantation dates to 1681, when Theophilus Patey gifted 470 acres to his daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Major John Boone as a wedding gift, giving rise to Boone Hall Plantation. Since then it has had several owners. The current main house was built in the Grand Colonial Style in 1936 by the then owner, Canadian, Thomas Stone. It was wonderful touring the main house, walking through the gardens, and visiting the row of slave houses on the property which now serve as mini-museums. Several movies have been filmed at the plantation, including much of The Notebook, which I now have to rewatch.

The lovely Avenue of the Oaks leading in to the plantation.

Avenue of the Oaks

The Slave Houses on Boone Plantation.

What the interior of one of these slave houses may have looked like.

In front of a large oak at the Boone Hall Plantation

The Main House at the Boone Hall Plantation

Just outside the main house

I call this old building on the plantation “The Poor Man’s Notre Dame,” with the faux flying buttresses.

Like in Hilton Head, we are still in Gullah Country. Here is a “haloed” Gullah lady who gave us a great presentation on the Gullah history of Boone Hall.

The “White Spider” plant in Boone Hall’s gardens

More of the Gardens

A look at the main house through the garden.

A gorgeous wedding was taking place on the day we visited Boone Hall Plantation.

Horses grazing on the grounds

The Argabrights at the front entrance to the main house.

Relaxing on the deck of the Dock House.

Sitting on the deck at the Dock House, talking about buying a piece of property on a site like this. Magnificent setting!

This past Saturday, Cindy and I flew out of Charleston, I to work and Cindy to see her family. Instead of leaving our RV at the Charleston KOA, we saved a big chunk of money by storing her at a nearby storage facility. The only downside to doing this is that there would be no electricity meaning we would have to turn off our refrigerator and lose our food. Fortunately, we were able to give most of it to Justin and Shera. We will now be absent from Beatitude II for about 6 1/2 weeks. But, our fun will continue. Sandwiched between working several shifts in Florida and Maine, I’m excited to spend three weeks in Europe. More of that next time!

Backing Beatitude II into our space at the storage facility.

Beatitude II closed up and sporting her tire covers we purchased for such times as this.